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Greymouth Star
Photo Feature
Wednesday, May 21, 2014 - 7
WW1 photos reveal human reality
Wellington
A touching snapshot of life in the
trenches of the Western Front has been
displayed for the first time.
Waitara telegraph linesman Leslie
Robert Pepperell signed on for the
army in June 1916, at 32.
He set off from Wellington as part of
the 9th Reinforcements, 4th Battalion,
H Company, bound for the brutal
fighting in Western Europe.
He took a remarkably advanced piece
of kit for the day — a soldier’s camera.
As small as a box of matches, it could
be slipped into his pocket.
Now, his collection of 111 original
6.5cm x 4cm photos, carefully organised
in a school exercise book, has gone
on display at the Alexander Turnbull
Library in Wellington.
The Pepperell album shows soldiers
giving each other haircuts, lining up
for dinner and church ser vices in the
African desert, clothes being fumigated,
and soldiers fooling around.
The Alexander Turnbull Library made
the album available after the photos
came out of copyright this year. It can
be viewed on request at the library
and will now be digitised for on-line
research as part of the museum’s drive
to make its collections more publicly
accessible.
The library also holds the official
World War One photograph album.
Photographic archive curator Natalie
Marshall said the Pepperell collection
offered a “much more immediate and
personal” insight into life on the front
line.
“ While we hold the official World
War One photograph album, the
Pepperell album provides a different
view — a much more immediate and
personal take of day-to-day life.”
The album includes postcards taken
from German prisoners, returned
soldiers’ railway tickets, newspaper
clippings, and corporal Pepperell’s
certificate of discharge.
It also contains seven silk-
embroidered postcards made by French
and Belgian women who sold them to
soldiers on the Western Front.
Although the military brass frowned
upon the use of cameras at the front,
soldiers had plenty of motivation to
take photographs.
As well as being able to stay
connected with their families back
home, some British newspapers offered
huge fees for photos from the front,
advertising their offers in New Zealand
newspapers such as the Evening Post.
“It was an adventure and trip of a
lifetime which they would have wanted
to document,” Ms Marshall said. “ But
as the war went on and the reality of
war took hold, things obviously would
have changed. ”
Mr Pepperell was promoted to lance
corporal shortly after taking part in the
infamous Passchendaele offensive on
October 12, 1917 — the darkest day in
New Zealand military history, where
the fighting for the tiny Belgian village
saw 846 New Zealanders killed.
He was discharged in April 1919 and
died in 1963.
— APNZ-New Zealand Herald
Getting a haircut in the field.
Enjoying a camel ride.
Embarking for the unknown.
New Zealand Rifle Brigade troops marching over the Rimutaka Range.
Grub’s up — grabbing a meal in the desert.
Getting clothes fumigated. X is T Jenkins.